High School Fiction & Nonfiction

The Infects, by Sean Beaudoin (Candlewick)
After 17-year-old Nick accidentally-on-purpose causes a major meat-factory contamination, he’s sentenced to a juvie camp — and then finds himself confronted with a full-blown zombie outbreak. This blackly comedic tale takes zombie lore to new territory. (374 pages)

The Diviners, by Libba Bray (Little, Brown)
In this lavish supernatural thriller set amidst the grit and gaiety of 1920s New York, wisecracking diviner Evie must use her special connection to the spirit world to solve a macabre series of occult murders. (584 pages)

Love and Other Perishable Items, by Laura Buzo (Knopf)
Fifteen-year-old Amelia is smitten with her coworker Chris (21). Chris’s journal entries reveal that he’s attracted to her, too. Like Amelia, readers will fall for Chris — and ultimately appreciate that he’s decent enough to realize dating her would be wrong. (245 pages)

Homeland, by Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen)
Three years after the events of Little Brother, hacker Marcus drops out of Berkeley, struggles to find a job and attends Burning Man. There he runs into former nemesis Masha, who entrusts him with hundreds of thousands of files documenting government corruption. (396 pages)

Pinned, by Sharon Flake (Scholastic)
Ninth-grader Autumn is great at wrestling and cooking but not reading. Her classmate Adonis, who was born without legs, manages the school wrestling team, and Autumn unabashedly loves him despite his prickly superiority. Their distinctive alternating voices enhance the story's complexity. (231 pages)

Daylight Saving, by Edward Hogan (Candlewick)
In this sort-of ghost story, Daniel is unenthusiastic about vacationing with his lovelorn father at tacky Leisure World. A mysterious girl named Lexi provides a distraction and also puzzles Daniel: Her watch ticks backwards and her skin shows wounds that worsen by the day. (216 pages)

A Certain October,by Angela Johnson (Simon)
Scotty is an average high school junior; then she's in a train accident that leaves her autistic younger brother Keone in a coma and her classmate Kris dead. The events unfold in bits and pieces as Scotty comes to terms with what happened. (161 pages)

The Friday Society, by Adrienne Kress (Dial)
In this Edwardian romp, budding scientist Cora, magician’s assistant Nellie and Japanese transplant Michiko meet after stumbling across a body. The whodunit mystery deepens as the story goes on, and the teens kick some butt using their complementary strengths. (440 pages)

Dark Triumph [His Fair Assassin], by Robin LaFevers (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Sybella is a convent-trained assassin serving St. Mortain, Death himself. When she is ordered to free a warrior known as “the Beast” from her own abusive father’s dungeon, Sybella’s understanding of love and death begins to change. (386 pages)

The Brides of Rollrock Island, by Margo Lanagan (Knopf)
A bitter, ostracized seal-kin girl magically calls up beautiful selkie women to entice the men of Rollrock Island. As the sons of selkie women and human men mature, their mothers’ longing for the sea spurs the boys to heroic and loving acts. (309 pages)

Team Human, by Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan(HarperTeen)
In this vampire story with a twist, Mel investigates the suspicious disappearance of her best friend's father. Retaining the essential elements — romance, suspense and danger — the book is also stamped with the protagonist’s distinct brand of sarcastic humor. (348 pages)

Every Day, by David Leviathan (Knopf)
Gender-neutral protagonist "A" wakes up in a different 16-year-old's body every morning. Before meeting Rhiannon, A tried not to disrupt his/her host-bodies’ lives —but now, everything has changed. (325 pages)

Game, by Barry Lyga (Little, Brown)
As the son of a notorious serial killer, Jasper is uniquely qualified to assist the NYPD homicide department with a new murder case. When his girlfriend Connie follows him to New York, unbeknownst to Jazz, both teens are sucked into the killer’s “game.” (520 pages)

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, by Meg Medina (Candlewick)
At her new Queens high school, Piddy (short for Piedad) Sanchez gets word that someone she doesn’t even know has it in for her. As the bullying intensifies, so do Piddy’s fear and lack of self-worth. Is it easier to give up or should she fight back? (261 pages)

Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell (St. Martin’s Griffin)
Eleanor is the new girl in town, an ostracized, bullied “big girl”; Park is a skinny half-Korean townie who tries to stay out of the spotlight. Their slowly evolving but intense relationship is authentic in its awkwardness — and life-changing for them both. (328 pages)

Endangered, by Eliot Schrefer (Scholastic)
In this survival story, Sophie grows attached to a baby bonobo named Otto on a visit to her mother’s animal sanctuary in the Congo. When the political situation destabilizes dangerously, Sophie refuses to leave Otto behind and flees into the sanctuary’s 30-acre bonobo enclosure. (264 pages)

Bomb: The Race to Build — and Steal — the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, by Steve Sheinkin (Flash Point/Roaring Brook)
While comprehensive in its synthesis of the political, historical and scientific aspects of the creation of the first nuclear weapon, this account focuses on an extremely alluring angle: the spies. Sheinkin maintains the pace of a thriller without betraying history or skipping over the science. A 2013 Newbery Honor Book. (266 pages)

Days of Blood & Starlight, by Laini Taylor (Little, Brown)
In the renewed war between chimaera and seraphim, human Karou (Daughter of Smoke & Bone), a resurrectionist, repopulates the chimaera, while her star-crossed lover Akiva reluctantly takes a lead role in the seraphim army. Surprises and acts of personal sacrifice ratchet up the suspense. (517 pages)

Mojo, by Tim Tharp (Knopf)
While hiding out (in a dumpster) from bullies, wannabe-investigative-journalist Dylan stumbles across the body of a classmate. Dylan — along with his best friend Audrey and the girl they are both crushing on — sees a connection to the disappearance of a rich girl. (289 pages)

The Other Normals, by Ned Vizzini (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins)
Fifteen-year-old loner and gamer Perry has been sentenced to forced socialization at Camp Washiska Lake. In a fantastical turn, he discovers that the world of his favorite role-playing game is based on the reality of another universe, the World of the Other Normals. (389 pages)